While rummaging around in Islam Online I discovered this little snippet on Israeli "aggression" (or self-defence as sane people call it):

It’s an unfailing demand of Islam that all forms of aggression practiced against innocent people should be halted, and peace should be given a chance to breathe. In case, the aggressor refuses to do this, we, Muslims are to fight him until he backs down. Almighty Allah says: "Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors."

This is a fairly widespread reckoning of the Arab-Israeli conflict among Muslims, and it just goes to show the massive divide between Islam and the West; the sentiments expressed here, were one to drop the Q'uranic references and change 'Muslims' to 'Americans' or 'Israelis,' are precisely the same as those from the other side. This hardly surprising. The entire language in which these debates are conducted is slippery and throughly debased to the point where two people from opposite sides of the ideological divide can say exactly the same words to each other while meaning two totally different things. 'Terrorism,' 'innocent,' 'aggression,' even 'peace' are words emptied of any concrete, universal meaning.

And as a last word, if Allah "loveth not aggressors" then he is clearly going to be none to pleased with the continuous Arab efforts to destroy, or latterly undermine, Israel starting in 1948.